sweet inspiration & fun baking ideas

Despicable Me 2 is coming out soon (July 3, that is) and I made these mini Minions for the movie release. I was super excited to be asked to make them because I know a bunch of you have wanted decorating ideas on these in the past.

But if you don’t, I have a link at the bottom of the post for the full instructions on how to make them.

But pictures are way better, right.

Okay, here’s a little tip I want to share on shaping. I think it really helps to get smoother edges. After you roll your mixture into evenly sized cake balls, you can use wax paper to help shape. I do this all the time for shapes that need sharper edges like boxes and such. You can simply slide the shape along a wax-paper covered surface and rotate.

And in the case of cylinders like these, start the shape of your cake ball cylinders by hand and then roll them up in a strip of wax paper. Twist the ends and then squeeze together while rolling on a flat surface to get smooth sides. It really works great.

After your cake balls are shaped and chilled until firm, it’s time to dip……

And decorate! The fun part.

Hi Carl, Tom and Tim!

I found these candy eyes in two sizes and they made making the minions a blast. I found them at Hobby Lobby if you have one in your area, but you can also use white M&M’s, candy necklace pieces or even piped white coating for a similar look.

My first plan was to use the eyes like you see them, but I ended up turning them over instead. For two reasons… one, the Minions’ eyes are brown with black pupils so I could use the solid white side to draw on them. And two, if you turn the smaller eyes over, the backs are flat instead of curved and it looked more like their goggles were really raised off of their faces that way.

I know. Overkill and you can totally use the black sides and they will still look cute. But I wanted to try and make them look as close to the original as I could. Because I’m crazy.

To decorate…

Dip in yellow coating and before the coating dries, attach a candy eye on front and insert some black or chocolate jimmies on the top for hair.

For the goggles, you can use licorice strings to make the bands. Just cut to the length you need and attach to the pop with candy coating and let dry. Or pipe bands with black tinted candy coating.

When dry, you can paint the rims on the goggles using silver luster dust and a small brush.

For the overalls, gently twist the Minions off the stick so you can take them for another little dip. Submerge the bottom fourth of the minion body into blue candy coating and let dry.

To finish the overalls, pipe the bibs on front using a toothpick or squeeze bottle and more blue candy coating. Use a toothpick to quickly smooth the surface before it dries. Then pipe the straps starting at the top of the overall bib.

Super cute.

To finish decorating, draw eyes and a mouth with a brown edible ink pen. Then, complete the eyes with a black pen and dot the pupils with white candy coating. (Here’s another tip when it comes to drawing on candy coating with an edible ink pen. You can use a toothpick to gently scrape it off the surface of the pop. Doing so can help you create straighter lines if you mess up while drawing. You can also use a toothpick to shave away candy coating and make smoother edges or straighter lines. Just don’t press too hard.)

You can totally stop there and they will be awesome, but if you are compulsive and crazy like me, you can add more detail to your Minions.

Use a toothpick to apply yellow coating in a line on the side of each pop for arms and add a black confetti sprinkle attached at the end for gloves.

Apply two dots of blue coating on the bottom of each minion body and attach two coated black sunflower seeds for shoes.

Draw on two black dots for overall buttons with your edible ink pen and attach a black confetti sprinkle on the overall fronts. Use a toothpick dipped lightly in blue coating and draw a G on each confetti sprinkle for their patch. Again. They’ll be just as sweet arm and legless and you won’t be hairless by the time you finish. : )

Minions! Yay!

But I also made something more from the movie.

I started with these shapes.

Circles. Easy enough.

And really rounded cones. You can use the wax paper trick for those.

The balls became little Agnes.

So adorable. And these are neat because I only used one candy to decorate. The rest was all melted candy coating. So you can do a lot with a little.

To create Agnes, make a small indention in the front of each ball. It’s all about details. The impression will help them look more like faces instead of round balls. Dip them in candy coating tinted using white and pink or peach to create a flesh color.

For her ponytail, I used licorice strings again, cut into short pieces. To make it easier to attach, I made the ponytails first by dotting some black candy coating on wax paper and attaching the licorice. This made the ponytail one unit and it was much easier than trying to attach the pieces on the top of the rounded pop.

When the ponytails are ready, dip the top of each Agnes’ head in black candy coating and attach her ponytail right on top before the coating dries.

For her sweet little face, draw eyes and mouth with a brown edible ink pen. Draw on eyebrows and dot on eyes and eyelashes with black candy coating and a toothpick.

Add bangs using a toothpick dipped in black candy coating to draw on hair. This will tie in the look to the licorice pieces, too.

Then dot on noses and ears with more flesh tinted candy coating and make her hair band by drawing on red candy coating.

Give her sweet little cheeks by brushing on dry pink luster dust.

Now Agnes wouldn’t be complete without her favorite stuffed animal.

Want to see?

It’s so fluffy!!!!! Or yummy in this case.

For the unicorn, I used candy corn… sixlets for eyes and hair, sunflower seeds for ears and confetti sprinkles for tongues.

Let me show you.

For the unicorn horn, I had some pastel colored candy corn and cut them in half. Then I painted the bottoms with gold luster dust. Painting the bottoms first is helpful so you don’t get luster dust on the head if you paint them after they are dipped. And you can use other candy corn colors, too since you are painting over them.

The ears were sunflower seeds attached to the cake ball shape, so when they were dipped it created one overall shape.

After dipping, immediately attach the horn, eyes and insert the tongue.

When dry, attach sixlets to the back for hair using melted dark pink candy coating. The sixlets work great and give the hair substance.

Then you can finish painting the horns with luster dust.

To make them look more like a main, use the pink candy coating (Merckens brand) and draw on the surface of the candies. Drag the toothpick through to simulate hair.

Voila. Unicorns with big voluminous manes.

Want to see one more.

Did you know there are new minions in this movie. Evil ones. Eeek.

I only made one of these but, it’s basically the same idea as the yellow minions, but with different colors, gnarly teeth and crazy hair.

Disclosure: I was compensated to make Despicable Me Cake Pops for the upcoming movie release. I love these little guys though and I only make things on the site that I think you’ll enjoy, too. I hope they make you smile.

OMG, they are really awesome! I always wonder how many hours you are spending on developing all those cute cake pops… And they always look so perfect and astonishing! I always fail when I try it, even with the easy ones. ;)

These are so adorable! I thought the minions couldn’t be beaten until I saw the unicorns!!!

June 17, 2013 06:14 AM

15

koren said...

OMG these are amazing I don’t know how you do it I love them I also love the first movie so can’t wait to see the second! The detail is amazing love it!!
SOOOO FLUFFYYYY!!

June 17, 2013 06:17 AM

16

Alissa said...

you are sooo talented- these are great!
plus loved your disclosure on the bottom- i’m totally happy for you
that you were compensated for these! WTG making yourself a fun business. wishing you continued success!

June 17, 2013 06:19 AM

17

Lydia said...

Make me SMILE?! I’m grinning from ear to ear! I love this movie! And especially the minions!!! I love the Agnes pop too!

June 17, 2013 06:26 AM

18

Shara said...

I just want to say absolutely AMAZING!! I’ve been wanting to try making minion cake pops and didn’t know where to start! Thanks for the great tutorial!! You are an inspiration!!!

Angie, these are absolutely AMAZING!
I’ve got patience when it comes to cake pop decorating, but this ramps it up to a whole new level! What a fantastic job!
You never cease to amaze me! I’m still loving your work after following you for over a year! <3 xo

June 17, 2013 06:47 AM

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Katie said...

You are crazy. Crazy talented. It’s always interesting to me to watch a master at work. I love those behind-the-scenes shows like “How it’s Made”. You are crazy good at cake pops and I appreciate you sharing your talent.

Absolute perfection! I loved Despicable Me and these cake pops make me love it even more. I can’t believe how perfectly you nailed each one of those characters. Ditto what the previous commenters have said… You’re amazing!

Absolute awesomeness! The last photo was the icing on the cake (please excuse the pun!) I was in awe, then I saw the Munched Minion and had to have a good chuckle!
Don’t get me wrong, no way am I making these! I’ve pinned them in the hope that someone might make me a set. The minions are soo like I imagined them in real life :-)

June 17, 2013 09:10 AM

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Annika said...

I have recently watched the first part again and I simply looooove the minions!!!!!! Such a great idea :)

These are AWESOME!! I have to make some Minion cake pops for an order next week and am sooo glad you made this tutorial – brilliant idea turning over the eyes and using the backs. Really excited about making them now. You are an inspiration and I love making cake pops so much. With very best wishes from the UK, Helen x

June 17, 2013 09:29 AM

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Eneida said...

OMG! These cake pops are absolutely amazing! You never fail to put a big smile on my face. The minions are adorable. My favorites are Agnes and her unicorn. You are amazing!!!! <3

Thank you!!!!! for giving a picture description of how these cute cookies are made…..I have always wondered how you get the cookies to look this the pictures…..Where do you get cookie cutters for different things/cut-outs? I would love to take a class from you…..:)

June 17, 2013 09:53 AM

48

Deb said...

Thanks for sharing this! These are sooo cute:) Am going to attempt this with my teens, they love to bake and cook!

June 17, 2013 09:54 AM

49

Trudy said...

Angie, you are truly the design master of cake and icing. Your latest creations go beyond words in the dessert world. This is art….edible art …too adorable to eat but we will.

Thanks for sharing your talents with us. Keep them coming.

June 17, 2013 10:24 AM

50

Lantana said...

I LOVE Despicable me and I can’t wait for the new movie! I love all your designs especially the unicorn! Did you know that the producers of Despicable Me wrote an entire language for the minions called Minion-ese? Each word they say translates to an actual English word. So cool!

June 17, 2013 10:26 AM

51

Yolanda said...

These are OUTRAGEOUS! So dang cute. Your artistic eye and precise execution knock me out every time. FANTASTIC!!!!

You rock!! These cake pops are incredible!! I love that you get requests to do these. And am always in awe of your artistic talent. I love the minions and I love, love, love that you also did Agnes and the unicorn!
Made me smile on a Monday! :) Thanks for sharing.

June 17, 2013 04:00 PM

70

Katherine said...

You are soooo talented.

June 17, 2013 05:22 PM

71

marianne said...

I totally love. These guys my dd favourite movie. So my next project I plan o taking her to the theatre to see it these would be an awsome after. Movie treat

I have followed your blog since you made your first cake ball… with the discovery of tiny paint brushes you have become brilliantly flawless in your execution of characters- perfectly recognizable! Brilliant!

June 17, 2013 08:17 PM

78

Sarah said...

Those are so cute! I was wondering if you were going to do any Monsters for Monster’s University that opens. My son loves that movie!

I am in AWE again!! Love ‘em love ‘em love ‘em!! Have to give ‘em a try…will see if I even come a tiny bit close to what you’ve done…amazing.

June 17, 2013 10:45 PM

82

Bree said...

These are mega cute! I love the minion’s overall’s and how some of them only have one eyes. I also think it’s cool how Agnes “hair” stick’s straight up, and how the evil minion look’s just like the other good ones, but is purple! Since you made a edible preview for this movie, it would be cool if you mad some for more upcoming movies. Like Thor 2 (Nerdy, I know!), Man of steel, or about Anna, the new Disney princess!~thanks!

June 17, 2013 10:58 PM

83

Linz said...

These are so awesome! I loved the first movie & am super excited for the second, as I adore the minions & Agnes. The minion cake pops are definitely my favorite out of the ones you made though! And you’re right, Agnes just wouldn’t be complete without her favorite unicorns.

ok so where do you hide that cake pop factory at in your home? because OMG these look like they stepped outta the movie and went on a candy melt swim at your house! HOOOOOLLLLLLEEEEE SCHMOLLLLIEEEEEE! :>O
sheer perfection.
applause applause with 20 million encores please.

Those are so amazingly cute! But, I think I’ll stick with letting you make them, and not try to do it myself–I can just see the frustration and imperfection waiting to happen ;)

June 18, 2013 03:15 PM

96

Erin L. said...

OMG!!!! Those are so cute! I have to make some of these! :)

June 18, 2013 03:30 PM

97

Nicki said...

Oh my gosh! We LOVE Despicable Me around here… we watch it several times a week and I can quote the entire thing. My kids would FLIP if I showed them these… and then demand that I make them. :) Amazing detail work. I just love these. And evil minions! I can’t wait for this movie to come out!

June 18, 2013 03:53 PM

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ba said...

Oh my gosh you have no idea how much I love these!! My son and I are obsessed. Thanks so much for sharing. They are adorable!!!

June 18, 2013 07:10 PM

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LOLLYCAKES6 said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the so fluffy unicorns and Agnes. You are truly incredible. I understand what it feels like to share your gift with so many people. I view your site daily waiting on your next treat. Congratulations on the gig to create the minions. Thank you so much.

June 18, 2013 07:28 PM

100

Heidi said...

Every cake pop was perfect! I totally understand the “eyes”. I used Smarties and colored the outside silver to make the goggles! Thanks for sharing!